Monday, October 25, 2010

Anger Unleashed

Unless you're new to the blog, you probably realize how much I detest the Force Unleashed video game—which is now becoming a 'franchise' with the sequel (the creatively named "Force Unleashed II". I mean seriously. Couldn't they come up with something better than that? Force Unleashed II: Electric Boogaloo? Part Deux?.. The Final Chapter- oh, yes. That last one has a nice ring to it). If you're interested in why I loathe this game, please check out these posts: here and here

Well, I guess this is another rant. The more I see of this game, the angrier I get. And for a lot of reasons. What reasons? Well, I'll restate them here:

First and foremost: Because these games show NO respect for the movies they are based upon. In fact, they completely undermine the main story of the Saga by marginalizing all of the main characters. Darth Vader and the Emperor are just more 'bosses' to fight at the end of levels. In these acts, you 'defang' the whole setting. Anyone other than Starkiller becomes a secondary character. To heck with any 'prophecy' or 'chosen one'. To heck with a Father's love for his children being the thing that brings him back from the depths of evil. In fact, to heck with the children at all. Who needs them if Starkiller is around to fix everything?

Secondly: Because the story is unoriginal. I've said it before. This series lives off of the 'name recognition' of the people that Starkiller beats up. Not because the character himself is at all interesting. There is VERY little development in the story that seems sincere. One minute, Starkiller is brutally killing everyone for Vader, the next, he's brutally killing everyone for the Rebellion. And we're supposed to believe he's achieved some enlightened epiphany as to his role in the galaxy. But that's not all. Not only does this story 'steal' its appeal from characters developed by others, it also seems to be molding itself more and more after ANOTHER video game character. See if you can recognize who:

A man with a tormented past loses the love of his life and feels betrayed by his 'masters'. So he comes back from the dead and launches a campaign to destroy those who took his love from him- slaughtering anyone who gets in his way. Including giant monsters- until finally (presumably) he stands once again before his masters- the 'gods' of the setting if you will- and defeats them. Oh, and he's also wielding two weapons. Huh. Sounds vaguely familiar.

Right. So I can see the concept meeting for the game: "Dude. People LOVE God of War and they love Star Wars... we'll just like... stick them together! God of Star Wars!"

Sigh.

Oh, and just to rub it in, the story for the first installment of this game won awards on how original it was.

Thirdly: Apart from marginalizing the main characters in the Star Wars Saga, I find the whole idea that Starkiller is the 'driving force' behind the Rebellion repulsive and insulting. It marginalizes everyone ELSE in the galaxy and once again reinforces the feeling that ONLY Jedi (and in this case, ONLY Starkiller) can possibly affect change in the galaxy. Everyone else is just a pawn- especially those 'normal' people. It rankles me on so many levels. Rrrrr.

I could rant all day on this, but I'll leave it with those big three and the same argument I keep bringing up: If Starkiller had his own story, in his own time period, with his own supporting characters and his own original 'mythos', I would probably like the game. But a little originality is evidently too much to ask. Better to just use (or in this case, mis-use) what other people have done.